The stated mission of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute is to teach the general public about how the U.S. Senate works, so it’s fitting that the shrine to the late Massachusetts Democrat is funded, in part, by $38 million in taxpayers’ money. The $78 million combination museum and interactive civics exhibit was formally dedicated by President Obama on Monday. Besides a section honoring Kennedy’s 46-year political career, which ended with his Aug. 25, 2009 death, the Institute will offer a “Senate Immersion Module” which aims to teach visitors how the upper chamber works. (snip) On top of an $18.9 million...

On top of an $18.9 million Defense Department grant doled out in Sept. 2010, the Institute received $13.6 million from the Department of Education, according to USASpending.gov. In the 2009 federal budget, another $5.8 million was appropriated through the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. The state of Massachusetts gave the University of Massachusetts $5 million, earmarked for the Institute. As a senator in 2010, current Sec. of State John Kerry waged an unsuccessful attempt to earmark another $28.9 million for the museum ... the $18.9 million Defense Department earmark was “funneled through the Defense...

BOSTON — President Barack Obama summoned today's quarrelsome political leaders to emulate the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in the pursuit of compromise on Monday, and said a new institute that bears the longtime Massachusetts senator's name can be as much an antidote to political cynicism as the man once was. "What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we were to follow his example a little bit harder?" the president asked a crowd of family, former aides and political dignitaries of both parties under a tent in raw weather just outside the doors of the Edward...

Full title: 'He died while smoking, drinking whiskey and telling lies': Hilarious and heartfelt obituary to Alaska fisherman, 60, published in local paper by adoring daughter ".........The obituary goes on to tell the story of Malcolm's life, starting with his upbringing in Kirkland, Washington. At the age of 19, Malcolm left his home state for Dutch Harbor, Alaska in order to realize his life's calling to 'yell at deckhands on commercial fishing boats.' For forty years, Malcolm worked as a boat cook, mechanic, deckhand, captain and boat owner catching crab, halibut, black cod and salmon - mostly out of the...

A veteran senator who let his mistress drown in a car he recklessly drove into a pond, rented a brothel for an entire night in Chile and sought meetings with communists is being honored by the Obama administration this month. Ted Kennedy received his posthumous accolades from the Department of Labor (DOL) with an induction into the agency’s “Hall of Honor.” The recognition is meant to showcase the life-changing contributions that a unique group of people have made on the American way of work, according to the agency. A special panel comprised of the Solicitor of Labor, the Assistant Secretary...

Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.

What the FBI missed -- and it deserves greater media attention, given how it was designed to undermine two presidencies. - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip...

Democrats are calling republican senators traitors. If they truly believe that then Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi are traitors, too. With the exception of Pelosi, the democrats would be worse traitors because they operated in secrecy, not having the intestinal fortitude to act out in the open. Let’s see how these three stack up against a letter written by 47 senators. First, to establish context, let’s examine exactly what the republican senators did. They wrote a letter to the Iranian government explaining US law. No only were they direct and open, but they are also correct. Any agreement...

House Speaker John Boehner’s on-staff amnesty advocate Becky Tallent is in talks with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s potential presidential campaign for a job, meaning if she takes it she’d leave Boehner’s office. Tallent is former chief of staff to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)—having personally crafted the amnesty bill McCain and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) introduced in the twilight years of the George W. Bush administration—and then also worked on immigration policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center. “Jeb’s team is looking to hire Rebecca for policy,” a former George W. Bush White House aide told Breitbart News. “The...

I am trying to find the photo taken in the 80's about Teddy's offshore drilling. Funny how I can't find it on google. Any have the link to the pic? Here is the story behind it from Rush: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2007/08/03/luke_sissyfag_howell_heflin_womb_to_the_tomb RUSH: What happened was -- this is back in the late eighties, I think -- Senator Kennedy is vacationing off the coast of the south of France and he's got a young nubile, very limber and flexible young woman with him, scantily clad in a nice bikini. We know this because paparazzi were taking pictures from neighboring boats, and the New...

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is set to open early next year. […] The institute is being built on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The centerpiece is a full-scale representation of the U.S. Senate Chamber. …

Sixteen female senators from both parties called on the National Football League Thursday to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on domestic violence. The senators said they were "shocked and disgusted" by a video showing former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee and knocking her unconscious. "Tragically, this is not the only case of an NFL player allegedly assaulting a woman even within the last year," the senators wrote in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The senators said they were deeply concerned that a new policy Goodell announced last month would let a player commit a violent...

In an echo of 2008 — when Ted and Caroline Kennedy backed upstart Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton — members of the Kennedy clan have been quietly wooing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and encouraging her to throw her hat in the ring, sources tell me. The question of whom to back in the 2016 presidential race has split the Kennedys down the middle. Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, and their eldest son, former US Rep. Joe Kennedy II, favor Warren — the darling of the party’s left-wing base who now sits in Ted Kennedy’s old seat — while Bobby Jr....

A call about trouble involving a crazy person at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport — what could be more routine than that for a 911 dispatcher at the Barnstable Police Department? But there was one big difference Tuesday night. This time it was a member of the Kennedy family as the victim, rather than the perp. So now it’s officially summer on the Cape. The Kennedys are back in the headlines. This time, though, the guy in the dock wasn’t wearing a lampshade on his head, the favorite attire of Kennedys this time of year. This time the defendant was...

It's a story that's been told before. After a failed bid for the White House, the long-serving senator returned to Capitol Hill. As the years wore on, he sparred with the president, used his name recognition to push his pet causes and became a power broker able to step in when party leadership failed. In many ways, Sen. John McCain has followed the path laid out by Sen. Ted Kennedy after his unsuccessful attempt to wrest the Democratic nomination from Jimmy Carter in 1980. But there are differences between the Arizona Republican and the Massachusetts Democrat, and not just those...

Everyone believes in "standards" don't they? So what could possibly be wrong with "Common Core" (the US education system's "Common Core State Standards Initiative")? After all, is it not "a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English... created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live"?* Not according to Dr. Duke Pesta, professor of English at The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, who joins us for an extended and detailed interview on the genesis, content and ideology of Common Core...

Mr. Schumer, who wants to be the next Senate majority leader, had worked on the 2007 push under his mentor and legendary deal maker, the late Ted Kennedy. “I called Schumer and said ‘Let’s get the band back together,’ ” says Mr. Graham. The Republican invokes the economic and moral arguments for immigration but emphasizes the political one. If the GOP brand with minorities doesn’t improve, the party won’t get out of an “electoral death spiral.” “After the 2012 election,” he says, “my worst fears were being realized.” Of the sponsors, only Mr. Graham faces an imminent election. He says...

EXCLUSIVE - 'She couldn't wait and allowed him to seduce her in a creaky French elevator': Bombshell book reveals Jackie Kennedy's secret lovers, her revenge on JFK with William Holden, her steamy night with Brando and her forbidden affairs with Bobby AND Teddy New book reveals that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a passionate woman who had many men--before, during and after her marriage to JFK Authors say she bedded Hollywood actors Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra, among others Confessed Brando, 'She took matters into her own hands and popped the magic question, ‘Would you like to...

Hillary Rodham Clinton brings a quarter-century of public service to her potential presidential campaign, but it’s her most recent job as secretary of state for President Obama — overseeing relations with Russia, handling the terrorist attack in Benghazi and negotiating over the war on terrorism — that could come back to haunt her. Many of Mr. Obama’s current political problems also could affect Mrs. Clinton, including the handling of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the decision not to slap the terrorist label on Boko Haram, a group responsible for kidnapping hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls last month. Even the Keystone XL...

BRANFORD -- There's a new keeper of the Kennedy flame. Ted Kennedy Jr. -- cloaking himself in the legacy of his father and uncles, from their familiar cadence to their crusade for social justice to their wavy hair -- finally acquiesced Tuesday to the overtures of Democrats who have long tried to lure the advocate for the disabled into running for office. The 52-year-old lawyer from Branford launched his candidacy for state Senate during a rally in his hometown, where retiring incumbent Edward Meyer introduced Kennedy as his heir apparent in what could become the most-watched race ever for the...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Ted Kennedy Jr. is planning to run for the state Senate in Connecticut. Two people briefed on the decision say the son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday that he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the state's 12th District. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Kennedy wants to make the announcement. Kennedy is a 52-year-old health care lawyer who lives in Branford, a coastal town outside New Haven, and has been mentioned as a possible political candidate for years. He had said last month he was considering...

Even for Greenpeace, a group known for turning high-seas drama into political statement, the foray into the Nantucket Sound wind farm debate has played like perfect theater. Take, for instance, the picture-postcard morning of Aug. 17, when a pair of Greenpeace motorboats surrounded a schooner crammed with wind farm opponents, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It was a made-for-TV face-off that, indeed, was reported on the national news that night. But for Greenpeace, a $360 million organization that spends about $3.3 million each year on U.S. campaigns, ongoing efforts for the Cape Wind project transcend interrupting a Kennedy sail. Today,...

January 9, 2014 Understanding the Benghazi/Chappaquiddick connection Chris Adamo On July 18, 1969, while most Americans were feverishly devouring the unfolding events of America's first manned moon landing, the late Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy was doing what cretins typically do. He was tooling around in the backwaters of coastal Massachusetts with Mary Jo Kopechne, a young political aid, who was not his wife. This was after throwing a reunion party for the "Boiler Room Girls" a group of women (including Kopechne) who had participated in the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. Most of the tragic events that followed are well...

In the early morning hours of July 19, 1969, a black Oldsmobile sedan turned down a narrow dirt road and careened away in a cloud of dust. As the car approached a wooden bridge that sat at an oblique angle to the road, it failed to slow. Too late, the driver realized his error. The car dropped over the side of the bridge, turned over and plunged into the Poucha Pond. The driver escaped the overturned and water-filled car. A 28-year-old female passenger did not. What followed doomed the Presidential aspirations of 37-year-old Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. Only Kennedy...

It was a wreck so devastating that at first investigators thought two cars had been involved. The gray Infiniti G35 hit a tree in the center median at a speed that split the car in half. It landed in separate pieces on the road. The driver, Abdulrahman Alyahyan, did not have a California license, according to DMV spokesman Artemio Armenta. … Alyahyan visited the DMV twice – most recently in February – and both times was rejected for a learner's permit, the spokesman said…. Alyahyan came from Saudi Arabia four years ago, and was not able to prove he was...

White, non-Hispanic kids will no longer make up the majority of America's youth in just five to six years, according to Census Bureau projections released Wednesday. Those projections, which include four different scenarios for population growth, estimate that today's minority ethnic groups will soon account for at least half of the under-18 population, either in 2018 or 2019. "This is going to start from the bottom of the age distribution and move its way up," said William Frey, demographer and senior fellow for the Brookings Institution. "All of these projections show we're moving to greater diversity in the United States."...

DARTMOUTH — A lawyer and former high-ranking Capitol Hill aide may face criminal charges after police say he left a state rep with a collapsed lung and possible broken ribs in a dust-up outside a youth basketball camp that apparently started over a state job. Dartmouth police say they’ve filed a criminal complaint in New Bedford District Court seeking a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon against David Oliveira, a former lobbyist and aide to the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and former U.S. Rep. John Olver. Oliveira, 44, pushed and “lunged” at state Rep. Christopher...

“This is Scott Brown’s full Palin.” MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell used his “Rewrite” segment Monday night to pay tribute to Scott Brown‘s political career, which he deemed dead today after the former Massachusetts senator and one-time GOP presidential prospect announced that he would be taking a job with Boston law firm Nixon Peabody. O’Donnell reviewed Brown’s short span in the political spotlight, from his unexpected ascent to Ted Kennedy‘s old Senate seat to his recent loss to Sen. Elizabeth Warren after a hard-fought and very expensive campaign. Since the election, Brown has taken a job as a Fox News contributor and...

Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world on Monday morning by announcing he would resign at the end of February. For Catholics, there was sorrow and there was gratitude for a Holy Father who taught with such distinction and worked with such care to safeguard the church's theological traditions. But there are those people who hate the Catholic Church, and they are ecstatic. Take documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, a man who clearly thinks he is holier than the Pope. He told the Daily Beast that Benedict is a "criminal." This helps explain why he's made a documentary for HBO, the...

As we look forward to a debate this year about immigration reform, I want to share my thoughts and my past experiences on this issue. I particularly want to share my personal experience from the 1980s amnesty law and how we can learn from that debate. But, before I dive into this history, I want to commend the many senators that are working together to forge a consensus and produce a product on this terribly difficult issue. I commend them for sitting down and agreeing to a set of principles. As Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, I expect to...

Most of us would be honored to have our name become a verb. Especially those of us in public life. But that is not how Judge Robert H. Bork got into the dictionary. He was "borked" when President Reagan nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. No sooner had the announcement been made by the White House on July 1, 1987, than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) raced to the Senate floor to denounce the distinguished judge and former Yale Law Professor. In Robert Bork's America, Kennedy roared, blacks would once again sit in the back of the bus, rogue...

Tucked inside the "fiscal cliff" deal is a provision repealing the CLASS Act, a giant unfunded mandate that was part of President Obama's health care law. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was a priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and was designed to create a program for long-term care for the functionally disabled. Mr. Obama halted the program, saying he couldn't find a way to make it cost-effective. But he had objected when Republicans tried to repeal it outright, saying he wanted to keep it on the books and try to amend it...

Judge Robert H. Bork, one of the the greatest jurists this country has ever produced, died early this morning from heart complications in a Virginia hospital near his home. He was 84. Bork was a national celebrity. Several years ago, my wife and I visited the Borks in Maine where they had taken a summer house off Somes Sound. I cannot count the times that total strangers would approach us at a lobster shack or park asking to shake the Judge’s hand and to assure him of their admiration and support. Bork’s celebrity was only partly conferred upon him by...

Law: A quarter of a century ago, a good and great man was slandered to maintain liberal judicial power. It was Vice President Joe Biden, who as a senator, led the injustices committed against Judge Robert Bork. The Wednesday morning death of Bork, Ronald Reagan´s failed 1987 Supreme Court nominee, should make us think how much freer and better this country would be if Bork´s intellectual power and constitutional integrity had been present within the justices´ deliberations over the past 25 years. Had Reagan nominated Bork to replace retiring Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1986, when Republicans

No worries. Sheâ€™ll only be a placeholder until someone from the next generation of Kennedy sub-mediocrity is ready to serve. The President has not made a choice on his next nominee for Secretary of State yet, but Governor Deval Patrick is already making plans to fill presumptive SecState nominee John KerryÂ’s Senate seat. Knowledgeable sources tell me Governor Patrick has already had a discussion with one potential replacement for Senator Kerry: Vicki Kennedy. The sources say the governor talked to Kennedy, the widow of Senator Ted Kennedy, about the possibility of replacing Kerry in the Senate and that she did...

I know that most of you fear that our nation is on the wrong course. But I pledge to you today that in my second term I'll stay the course and stick to the plan. There is no hope in change. During the 2008 election John McCain warned the nation (as many of us did) that a Barack Obama presidency would be the second term of Jimmy Carter; that it would be a rudderless administration unable to govern or lead misdirecting the country into economic distress, military and strategic decline and international turmoil. And so it has been. With 23...

With one Kennedy already on the ballot this fall, don’t be surprised to see another member of the political clan soon make a bid to join the family business. Edward M. Kennedy Jr., the eldest son of the late Massachusetts senator, is consulting with a veteran Washington political hand in a clear sign he’s seriously considering a run for office, the Herald has learned. The 50-year-old Kennedy brought in longtime Democratic strategist Steve McMahon to help him coordinate media interviews at the party convention in Charlotte, and several sources say McMahon also is helping Kennedy with political advice. Kennedy lives...

CHARLOTTE, NC - Day one of the Democratic National Convention was a tale of two events. Throughout the early evening session -- prior to the major primetime hour -- the proceedings featured angry attacks on Mitt Romney and Republicans, an unshakeable fixation on trivial, minor issues (other than jobs and the economy), and a disquieting, heavy emphasis on abortion and divisive social issues. Especially unpleasant were the patriotism-questioning shout-fest from former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland ("If Mitt Romney were Santa, he'd fire the Reindeer and outsource the elves!") and the pro-abortion screed from the president of NARAL, a hardcore pro-abortion...

p>I won't run through the usual litany of misdeeds. If you don't already know them by heart, you'll commit them to memory eventually when you finally tire of liberals screeching at you for "hating women" while holding this guy up as a secular saint. (Chappaquiddick material is abundant online, but this post will get you up to speed on another legendary incident.) I've got to say, in all sincerity: I appreciate their brazenness in building a convention around the theme of a "war on women" while not only inviting Bill Clinton to be a headline speaker but having a video...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Snerdley is yelling at me: "Are you gonna get rid of Akin now?" Before I give my two cents on all this, folks, let me first say I have two natural tendencies. One is to avoid the pack, to avoid the conventional wisdom. When everybody seems to be uttering, voicing, doing the same thing, that's when I put on the brakes and say, "Do I want to join this mob?" And I also have, as you well know, a tendency to want to support conservatives who come under fire. It doesn't happen enough. You know, the Democrats...

L.A mayor’s party will glam uptownBy Tim Funk Posted: Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012 An army of A-list celebs and politicos are expected to show up at the N.C. Music Factory on Sept. 5 for a Hollywood-themed gala hosted by L.A. Mayor – and Dem convention chairman – Antonio Villaraigosa. The Dish has learned that the Factory’s Fountain Plaza and Osso Restaurant will get a one-night make-over. Picture palm trees, classic L.A. architecture and lots of California wine. **SNIP** Grandson Joseph Kennedy III, a candidate for Congress, will introduce a video salute to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy on the convention’s...

“It really annoyed Caroline when comparisons were made by the media between Michelle and Jackie. Caroline had a word for such comparisons; she called them ‘odious.’ She really got annoyed. And when she began to fall out of love with the Obamas, love was replaced by outright scorn. Now she says things about Obama like, ‘I can’t stand to hear his voice any more. He’s a liar and worse’” Ethel Kennedy, “the matriarch of the family,” similarly felt scorned, according to Klein. He tells a story of her invitation — extended to the First Family — being ignored by the...

As Massachusetts Democrats meet at their nominating convention today, some members of the Cherokee Nation are stepping up a campaign to get answers about candidate Elizabeth Warren’s claims of tribal ancestry – a sideshow controversy that has nevertheless begun to wobble one of the most closely-watched Senate campaigns in the country. This week, Indian reporters say they were snubbed by Warren’s campaign as they sought clarification on why Ms. Warren was listed as a minority Native faculty by Harvard in the 1990s, even though she has no evidence to back that claim and apparently never sought out other Native Americans...

Former Republican Rep. Tom Davis told The Hill newspaper: “The middle is getting squeezed,” but his comment vastly understates the crisis in the capital. Activists in both parties have declared war on moderates. The ideological gap between the two parties is widening rapidly. Paralysis is pervasive. Political scientist Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, who studies voting patterns, told the National Journal: “We are clearly as conflicted as we’ve been since 1905. The parties are, I think, completely dysfunctional and incapable of acting on major policy.” The National Journal reports that as recently as 1999, more than half of...

A Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts has withdrawn an invitation to the widow of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to speak at graduation after concerns about her views were raised by the Bishop of Worcester. Anna Maria College in Paxton announced Friday that ``concerns were expressed about the college being in conflict with the bishop.'' Victoria Reggie Kennedy was scheduled to speak at May's commencement. The college did not cite Bishop Robert McManus's specific concerns. A diocese spokesman says the bishop has followed directions that Catholic institutions should not honor Catholics who take positions contrary to church principles ``particularly on the...

When Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation in April 2006 requiring most Massachusetts residents to have health coverage, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stood by his side, beaming like a proud father. They were onstage at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, a setting that had a special resonance for the two. Twelve years earlier, they shared that stage as opponents in a bitter Senate race. Back then, Mr. Romney accused Mr. Kennedy of waging “untrue, unfair and sleazy” personal attacks. Now, the Republican governor was introducing the liberal Democratic senator as “my collaborator and friend.” Mr. Romney’s complicated relationship with Mr. Kennedy,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Carrie Fisher, speaking of sexual harassment charges, or rather the lack of them in this case. There's an amusing anecdote out there, Carrie Fisher's latest autobiography. She's the daughter, by the way, of the movie star Debbie Reynolds. I met Debbie Reynolds once at a House Clinic event. She was the entertainer. She's hilarious. I had forgotten. She is a hilarious comedienne, Debbie Reynolds. That's Carrie Fisher's mom, and Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the first Star Wars flick. That was before calling someone princess was sexist. Do you believe Cain had to apologize for calling...